28 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



by ensuring a steady supply of wood, water, and forage; without them, that develop- 

 ment in a permanent sense would be impossible. 



Last year they provided forage for over seven and three quarter million head 

 of stock; they yielded over one thousand million feet of lumber sold, and in addi- 

 tion more than $75,000 worth was given away to settlers for fuel, fencing, and other 

 domestic purposes. And through permitting legitimate use of their resources in 

 many other ways, these forests afforded profitable opportunities literally by the 

 thousand, to those who live in and near them. These figures stand for something. 

 They show that the National Forests contributed last year in no small measure to 

 the material prosperity of the western country. And when you remember that this 

 contribution is not for one year or for a few years, but for every year; not decreasing, 

 but increasing; not merely probable, but certain if we use and do not waste; then 

 I think you will agree that the National Forests are worth while. 



The value of the yield in timber and forage can, in a very limited way, be meas- 

 ured in dollars, but their value in the way of conserving stream flow, in rendering 

 irrigation permanently possible and their use as great health and pleasure grounds 

 for all, cannot be expressed in money. And they exercise, (at least as I see it), 

 -still another great influence for good. They exemplify for the nation the same 

 providence and foresight which a bank account and a scale of living within it ex- 

 emplify in the individual. And entirely apart from their material benefits, I 

 believe that the National Forests have done much and will do more, to show that 

 the conservative use of all natural resources is the moral duty, as well as the best policy, 

 of the nation as it is of the citizen. 



The actual management of the National Forests is giving general satisfaction 

 to those who use them. That their use is growing steadily makes that very clear. 

 The Service is trying to build up a field force to handle them which will command 

 confidence, not merely because of the work it is engaged in, but because of the qual- 

 ity of those who compose it. We want a body of men whose main strength lies, not 

 in the powers conferred upon them by virtue of their office, but in their own effect- 

 iveness and high purpose. Our supervisors and rangers do not form a military 

 organization and their power of arrest is happily the least used of their functions. 

 But although their task is different we want them to stand in their communities 

 for the things that the Canadian Mounted Police have stood and still stand for, with 

 -the results that, as I need not tell Canadians, they exert an influence for good the 

 um of which fifty times their number might be proud of. So you see, gentlemen, 

 that we have set the standard high. 



I promised you, Mr. President, that I would make this a short talk. You were 

 altogether too courteous to suggest that it should be short. And when I remember 

 that you were present when I addressed the meeting of your Association at Van- 

 couver I feel that such forbearance should have its reward. And besides, I am here 

 to learn of your progress and to learn from it, rather than to dwell upon ours. 

 You have been accomplishing great things. You have put 150 million acres into 

 forest reserves in British Columbia. Perhaps you do not realize, as we do to the 

 south, what a great thing you have done, and you have done it, not under the 

 pressure of urgent immediate need, but you have foreseen that need and provided 

 for it before it came. 



I know far less of your country than I wish to know, but from what I do know, 

 I have felt straight along that Canada has an opportunity to meet and surround 

 her forest problems in some respects unparalleled in any country in the world. 

 As a remedy for the misuse of the forest, forestry will cure and it alone will cure, 

 but it will not cure instantaneously. If a nation wastes its forests, forestry will grow 



